Words

“Roland Gladden and Jessica Crenshaw, who are about as young and hip as the Arkansas Times gets, came to work Monday and fell into the 19th century. … They found themselves clabbering about in a trench dug in the parking lot outside, on Markham between Scott and Cumberland.”

Pretty darned observant himself, C.L. Butler of Gray, Tenn., writes: “Surely these two ‘young and hip’ investigators of Little Rock’s buried history did not turn rancid, or sour, as milk is prone to do when left unused past its prime.”

Indeed not. Nowhere near their prime, the investigators are still young, still hip, still sweet. Even The Observer blinks occasionally. Here, the difference between clabber and clamber went unobserved.

“The writer who criticized ‘came up’ apparently wasn’t raised up in the right place. How ’bout ‘She came up the hard way,’ or ‘He’s as tight as Dick’s hatband — he came up through the Depression.’ Doesn’t the Good Book admonish us to ‘raise a child up in the way of the Lord …’ It doesn’t say ‘rear’ a child in the way of the Lord.’ ”

“The initial results gave Felipe Calderone, the pro-business candidate … a lead of 240,000 votes, or less than 1 percent, over leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador …”

If one candidate is described as “leftist,” shouldn’t the other be called “rightist”? If one candidate is “pro-business,” how about declaring his opponent “pro-worker”? Instead of “pro-business,” why don’t we say “anti-labor” or “anti-union”?

I saw only one article coming out of Mexico City that tried to be fair: “Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who champions the cause of the poor … ”

In the old days, reporters identified with working people, and joined unions themselves when they had the chance. Now, they kiss up to the outsourcing, downsizing, power-lunching crowd, hoping to exchange their self-respect for a few crumbs from the table. The newspapers were better in the old days.